NYPD Considers Technology to Halt Bridge Stunts

Consideration Prompted by Artistic Prank on Brooklyn Bridge

Two bleached-white American flags mysteriously appeared atop the Brooklyn Bridge Tuesday morning. It is unknown whether this stunt was an art project, a political statement or just tomfoolery. Photo: AP.

The New York Police Department is considering new technology to prevent people from climbing to the top of the city's bridges after two German artists scaled the Brooklyn Bridge and swapped out two American flags with white ones as a stunt.

The bridge's American flags were turned over Thursday to authorities at the U.S. Embassy in Germany, a senior law-enforcement official said. The flags are being transported back to New York City.

The artists, Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf, claimed responsibility for the swap, and a law-enforcement official said their legal representative surrendered the flags.

The swap, which police described as highly coordinated, took place after 3:30 a.m. on July 22.

Large food pans secured with zip ties were placed over lights illuminating the U.S. flags at the top of the towers on the Manhattan and Brooklyn sides, police said.

The American flags were replaced with handmade white flags.

NYPD officials ruled out terrorism, but the prank raised questions about bridge security.

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In a meeting with Wall Street Journal editors on Monday, the NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, John Miller, said the incident "really made us look at that bridge, but all the other bridges and say, where do we have to get in terms of technology so we have more sensors and trip wires."

Mr. Miller added that though "nobody's ever tried to blow up a building from the top," additional security measures are necessary because "it's still not the place you want people climbing around or crawling around without your knowing about it."

In the same meeting, Police Commissioner William Bratton said the city remains actively threatened by terrorist organizations.

The bridge stunt reinforces, he said, "the importance of staying very focused on this in the sense of not diminishing the number of personnel, the constant quest for better technology, the acquisition of better technology, the acquisition of better capabilities to predict and forestall something happening."

Since the stunt, the NYPD has increased patrols on the Brooklyn Bridge and other spans.

Mr. Bratton said the artists were staying in a lower Manhattan hotel from July 4-24.

Investigators have video showing one artist allegedly coming out of a subway stop near the bridge at 2:10 a.m. on July 22, allegedly followed by the other one a short time later, the senior official said.

ENLARGE

One of two white flags on the Brooklyn Bridge on July 22.
Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal

Authorities believe it would be difficult for the men to pull off the stunt without the help of others, the senior official said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance will determine if charges should be filed. A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance declined to comment.

The artists didn't respond to a message for comment. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the agency has no information on the flag.

The senior official said authorities face a dilemma in deciding whether to charge the men.

The artists have said the act was a display of artistic expression, celebrating the 145th anniversary of the death of the bridge's German-born architect, John Roebling.

Some law-enforcement officials, however, point out that the men allegedly trespassed on a restricted area of the bridge and allegedly removed city property to accomplish the stunt.

The senior official said that in the end, authorities have to "look at it as a practical matter."

"What are we going to get out of it?" the official said.

Maria Haberfeld, a law professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said given current world news events, "I don't think they'll be extradited."

"If anything comes out of this for the NYPD, it's more awareness," she added, saying the incident will likely result in police "re-examining the security of targets in the city."

@Barbara Wade I think the potential interpretations are endless. Originally they were simply identified as white flags, ergo a sign of surrender or neutrality, but now they've been revealed to be American flags bleached white: a dilution of U.S. power, perhaps?

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